Sometime around midnight tonight I shall hit the road,
traveling down that old familiar highway to make my pilgrimage,
to celebrate my most favorite holiday- yes, darlings, it is Mardi Gras time!
I never got around to sharing these photos from last year-
I was preparing to when I found out that my friend Vi
had died suddenly, and the tangle of mourning snared me
in tears and thorns- later, I had lost my momentum somehow..I just realized that today is the one year anniversary of her death.
If you have a minute today, go and read this
letter that Vi wrote- it’s important.

So now, a year later I’m looking at these images and remembering
all the iridescent cacophony that is carnival and my heart is beating
quickly with anticipation that soon I will be gazing up at this cathedral
again, dancing in the streets with all my dear ones, and the whole city.
Please, please, please let the weather be as perfect this year as it was then!

It couldn’t have been a more perfect day- warm, with a dazzling blue sky.
Colin made this Minotaur costume in about five minutes, and looked
totally amazing. I think maybe he should paint himself gold every day..

Look at these little pastel petitfours! Can you believe that they did not plan
to be birds of a feather with those pale wigs? It’s true. Psychic sisters!
They’re all mostly oceanic themed costumes as well- so beautiful.

Miss Dana Kitten was a Forest in Winter!
She gave us many icy feather-snowflake butterfly kisses,
and melted our hearts with her beguiling ways.

Miss Raven was a most luminous and perfect pearl,
shimmering out from her pink scallop shell cowl.

Liser had one of my most favorite costumes- we were looking around for her,
and everyone kept saying, “She’s still in bed!” we were aghast until we found her
and discovered that it was true! I loved her hair splayed out on the pillow,
with condom and teddy-bear, and the sleep mask that reads Sweet Musings
that she found in the dumpster. It was heaven to curl up next to her
and pretend to still be in bed, too. Mardi Gras is an early morning thing, y’all!

Okay, so Miss Jenny and her beau Jon are basically the King and Queen of Mardi Gras
as far as I’m concerned- their costumes are always so perfect and so incredibly detailed!
If you could see their outfits up close, your eyes would just goggle out of your head
at the psychedelic wonderment of a jackalope in lederhosen and his mad-hattered belle!
By the way, her hat reads, “Laissez Le Bon Temps Rouler!” -yes, indeed!

Miss Jackie is always so stunning. Her costumes really are something else.
She has a real poison dart blower too, so you’d better watch out!

Miss Angie is the Queen of the Seadragons! The wind was blowing like crazy
in Jackson Square, and we were worried that it might take her away into the sky-
as her golden finned headdress was acting as a sail! The woman looks good green.

Oh Sienna! La bella cubanitsa! We were dancing in the street eating plums and nectarines.

Beastly boys! David’s creations have inspired my to strap taxidermy to myself this year-
only, not to my face. Although I would love one of his goat masks, with a long silky beard!

This person terrified me very much! All in all it was a very black metal Mardi Gras.

I spent a long time staring at this kingcake, which is apparently considered edible, by some.
I even considered it, until I was pulled away. There was something magical
about those colors, though.. O unnatural icing! Your evil swirls are calling me!

Instead I opted for this much more streamlined fancy-schmancy kingcake,
from a foo-foo bakery Uptown that I can’t remember the name of.
It was delicious, and had edible glitter and iridescent powder!
So gorgeous. I want edible glitter on all my food now.

That scary creature is Don Corbitt. He always looks terrifying! There’s a good collection of his brilliant costumes in the pictures on his MySpace. He makes them all himself. Also, any of the latex/rubber wear on his models in his photography is his.

Gosh this makes me miss home right now. So much loveliness and magnificence. The cuteness that ate your heart = the Fifi Mahoney’s ladies. Jamie is one (I buy top hats from her), and the other’s name escapes me….

love love love. i wish i was coming too. some year NEXT YEAR before we get old and grey and tiny and move back into walnut shells and collect moss for our winter beds, i will go with you to mardi gras.

Darling! Did I tell you I met Jenny and Jon at the Edwardian Ball in LA? Jenny was reclined on a chaise lounge in one of the downstairs parlours, looking exquisitely beautiful in a long red-and-black, ruffly tiered-skirt. She just smiled and waved me over like we were old friends. I ended up sitting next to her for a while, babbling away, and within a few minutes, we’d realized we had a very special friend in common… YOU! It made my night. They are both exquisite people, and I hope to see them again someday soon.

How I love these photos!! I can’t tell you how much I actually look forward to seeing your Mardi Gras photos every year. I have been living vicariously through you in your magical world for years now..almost a decade? Whenever you started your blog and yet I don’t know you. I first learned of you via Dame Darcy’s work. You’re a celebrity of sorts. So I have to say thank you..I planned on moving out there in 2000 but it didn’t work out and my friends from there said it’s too hot/humid and jobs are difficult to find. Though I didn’t care and sadly just as I finally got up the nerve to move there, Katrina happened. I am devastated something so horrible could happen to the most enchanted city in the states! You are truly blessed! Please keep posting whenever you can!

I know this is an old post, but I came across it looking for inspiration for a Minotaur costume, and I really love the headgear Colin created. Did he find that hat, or make it? I’ve been searching around for a similarly wild and shaggy fur hat to build upon, with little fortune so far. So simple but fabulous!